'Those who created mayhem at JNU should be arrested'

Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale on Tuesday said those who indulged in the mayhem in Jawaharlal Nehru University should be identified at the earliest and arrested.

Talking to mediapersons here, Athawale, the president of RPI(A), an ally of the BJP, said the fact-finding team headed by Delhi Police joint commissioner Shalini Singh, which has been asked to probe into the incident, should complete its job as soon as possible so that the perpetrators of the crime are brought to book.

To a question, he said all the culprits, whether belonging to left-wing or right-wing outfits, "should be brought before the law soon".

He said it was painful that the university, which carries the name of Jawaharlal Nehru, has been hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons like incident of raising of anti-India slogans, demonstration to condemn the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, disruption of registration process for the winter semester and continuous protests against the hostel fee hike.

He suggested that the university authorities should consider reducing the increased hostel fee by holding talks with student representatives.

To another question, Athawale said it was not proper for Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray to have reportedly compared JNU campus violence to 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. Both are different issues, he said.

Thackeray, while condemning the attack on students on the JNU campus on Sunday night, reportedly said, "When I saw the news of JNU attack on TV, it reminded me of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack."

Masked men armed with sticks and rods attacked students and teachers and damaged property on the campus.

The Left-controlled JNU Students' Union and the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) blamed each other for the incident in which at least 35 people, including JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh, were injured.